LOL, the rating dropped from a 7.7 to a 7.0 in two days. I can't say I disagree. It started strong and I liked it. But then it grew progressively worse with amateur editing, and imploded at ep 6, with that fake kiss.
I don't get why an idol breaking into acting would do a BL only to do a fake kiss, which will lower him in the eyes of fans. Those idols who commit to a true kiss (eg, Semantic Error, Cherry Blossoms After Winter, Kissable Lips, My Beautiful Man, Amieros Paradox, etc), all got tons of praise for committing to their roles. Thus, it helped their careers. But how did this role help the idol's acting career? Answer: it did not. To the contrary, all I'm reading is negative things online about his homophobic kissing scene. All considered, I don't get why agents bother putting guys like this in BL's in the 1st place .
I initially liked it based on the sexual tension between the boys, and was even willing to forgive the bad editing. Alas, the sexual charge evaporated once they decided to fake kiss and supposedly "date." In fact, dating for them simply meant acting the exact same way as they did when they were ordinary pals in high school (eg, they played basketball, ate meals together, hung out at the park). So the show became a disappointment.
Nice movie which addresses the themes of how one survives without modern amenities such as electricity, how social groups behave when they feel threatened (eg, hoarding food, price gauging, stealing, etc), and, finally, how a family learns to bond in the face of adversity. The themes were not only conveyed well, but the director also kept the pace moving along quickly, and every member of the cast did a fine job. All in all, it's a good movie about both society and family.
The secret is that the baby is theirs - hers and the brother's. That's why she told him he made sure to never…
No, it was directed at me. I had been rude, but then deleted my comment because I felt badly. So it's confusing because you can't see the original comment she's talking about.
Absolutely brilliant crime caper that has you riveted by its action, characters and stylish camera work every…
Oh, and can we talk about that scene of the hitmen at the salaryman's house? You know, when Beat Takeshi as a hitman commands his young partner to strip and have sex with him in front of the corpse of the salaryman's daughter? Christ. Only the Japanese could do such a scene as black comedy and make it work.
My heart broke for Jimmy and his Thai girlfriend. They were so sweet and innocent together. Since they were the first to go, I thought that maybe they'd be the only ones to go. Boy, was I wrong. And god, how I wanted Bandai and Mitsuya to make it to the countryside and start a new life together. But Bandai got it. So ok, he was gone. But Mitsuya was still alive, and we saw Mitsuya seemingly so safe on that bus while bringing Bandai's ashes and money to Bandai's mother's home in the country, just as Bandai had asked him to with his last dying words. I thought, ok, Mitsuya will at least live. Wrong again.
Since I knew there was a Gonin 2 even before I started watching this, I had assumed that Bandai and Mitsuya would live to star in the sequel (I really wanted to see them as boyfriends in another movie). Alas, I was woefully wrong about all the characters. Because the entire freaking cast was dead by the end.
I just watched it using the link you provided below (thank you!), and I agree. BTW, I see you often on these pages…
Yep, and I not only often see you, but I see you on the same pages as a friend of mine here who used to be named FrothyMix but is now named etoks21. It seems we 3 like the same sort of movies.
Absolutely brilliant crime caper that has you riveted by its action, characters and stylish camera work every second of screen time. I can see why it was a hit in Japan back in 1995, and is now regarded as a classic there, and a cult classic in the West.
I must also add that I loved how it was made nearly 30 years ago, and yet features not one, but two gay couples. And then there's the fact that being gay is not in the least the focus of the film. The focus is 100% the crime caper. Their being gay is merely incidental, and that’s what makes it so cool. Because it suggests that it’s not a big deal to be gay. Imagine such a message 30 years ago --and in Japan, no less!
I am very thick. Even when one of the hit men said, How can a parent kill their own child? it didn't register…
It also took me a moment to get that the salaryman killed his own family . But then it all made sense. After all, he was portrayed as unhinged from the very 1st scene of the movie when he attacked Bandai at the batting park. Then he was swinging a baseball bat around at people at the nightclub. Then he even killed someone during the heist, which was not in the plan. I mean, this guy was out of control, and all the other members of the gang knew it.
My theory as to why killed his family is that he had a fight with his wife because he got fired. We'd already seen that he's a violent guy, so it's easy to imagine him losing his temper at something she said about him getting fired. He probably just exploded and bashed her head with a blunt object, and accidentally killed her. Once he killed her, he knew he'd go to jail for life, and his kids' lives would be destroyed, so he chose to kill them too. This would mean that the family had already been dead during that week or so that he'd been running around with the gang. This would account for the bodies being a state of decomposition when the hitmen showed up.
It started off well enough, and since the actors were all such pros I was invested in the characters. Alas, midway it descended into a wannabe Tarantino film replete with an R&B song blasting while two sexy, young hipsters shoot up a room full of dozens of people. But in a Tarantino movie the violence is aesthetically stylish. In this movie, however, it came off as just plain silly.
Some of the silliness involved a petite 90 pound girl who was bashed in the head with a hammer 6 times but did not die; and later in the movie was shot in the chest 3 times, but still did not die. I began to think of her as "The Immortal Femme Fetal." And that's just one of the film's sillier elements. Trust me, there are bucket loads more.
But of all the silliness, I'd have to say that worst involved the director's attempt to copy certain plotlines from "Reservoir Dogs" and certain scenes from "Pulp Fiction." The imitation was so lame that I began to feel embarrassed for this director. Really, by the end of this movie I was just plain cringing.
The song in the show is certainly not reflective of all Kpop in general, and I don't know why you felt like going…
BTW, I am curious about that comment that I said you deleted. It's utterly bizarre that I cannot see it. Can you see it? Or did it disappear for you too? I am wondering if I cannot see it because you made the reply on a sub-thread of somebody who subsequently blocked me.
The song in the show is certainly not reflective of all Kpop in general, and I don't know why you felt like going…
It's interesting that on the one hand, the Korean entertainment industry has been praised throughout the world as being so good that it even rivals Hollywood. People call it the the "K-Wave." You know, the way they call India's movie industry "Bollywood." A Korean movie, "Parasite" even won an American Oscar a couple of years ago. But on the other hand, the Korean entertainment industry has also gotten tons of negative press in the West for how it treats its K-Pop idols.
Agencies pluck these kids from their families, sign them with contracts that essentially give them ownership over the kids, put them in dorms, overwork them, and then when the kids lose their looks, get too old, or just break down mentality, they dispose of them. Or the kids kill themselves. Over 30 K-Pop idols have killed themselves in the past decade alone. So it's this odd thing where the Korean entertainment industry is the best in the world outside of Hollywood, while at the same time, they have the worst problems. It's both things at the same time.
But I think that with all the negative press that the K-Pop industry has gotten for this, they should be doing better now on how they treat their idols. I mean, they know that world now looks at the Korean entertainment industry with so much respect and admiration that they want to keep it that way, right? I certainly admire the K-Wave and watch tons of Korean movies. In fact, I made a list here on MDL of my "Top Movies of All Asia" and 4 of them are Korean: "Night Flight" "Punch" "Parasite" and "The Handmaiden." I highly recommend each one of them!
This episode was really bad, from the hug misunderstanding trope to the endless implausible lack of commuication.…
Agreed. Mahiro complained about Souta saying he wanted to kiss him because he had these confused feelings, but wasn't sure about them yet. Well, what's wrong with that? Most people kiss for that reason when they date casually. In fact, that's what the Step 1 Dating Phase is all about. As you said, it doesn't mean you're messing with the person. Rather, you are attracted to them, but aren't sure yet that you love them. That's where Souta is at.
Ultimately the person who wrote this show has inadvertently made Mahiro come off as a prickly, precious jerk with a fear of intimacy.
1 
I don't get why an idol breaking into acting would do a BL only to do a fake kiss, which will lower him in the eyes of fans. Those idols who commit to a true kiss (eg, Semantic Error, Cherry Blossoms After Winter, Kissable Lips, My Beautiful Man, Amieros Paradox, etc), all got tons of praise for committing to their roles. Thus, it helped their careers. But how did this role help the idol's acting career? Answer: it did not. To the contrary, all I'm reading is negative things online about his homophobic kissing scene. All considered, I don't get why agents bother putting guys like this in BL's in the 1st place .
My heart broke for Jimmy and his Thai girlfriend. They were so sweet and innocent together. Since they were the first to go, I thought that maybe they'd be the only ones to go. Boy, was I wrong. And god, how I wanted Bandai and Mitsuya to make it to the countryside and start a new life together. But Bandai got it. So ok, he was gone. But Mitsuya was still alive, and we saw Mitsuya seemingly so safe on that bus while bringing Bandai's ashes and money to Bandai's mother's home in the country, just as Bandai had asked him to with his last dying words. I thought, ok, Mitsuya will at least live. Wrong again.
Since I knew there was a Gonin 2 even before I started watching this, I had assumed that Bandai and Mitsuya would live to star in the sequel (I really wanted to see them as boyfriends in another movie). Alas, I was woefully wrong about all the characters. Because the entire freaking cast was dead by the end.
BTW, I see you often on these pages -- both for movies like this, and for BL's. I always enjoy your opinions so it's nice to see you here.
I must also add that I loved how it was made nearly 30 years ago, and yet features not one, but two gay couples. And then there's the fact that being gay is not in the least the focus of the film. The focus is 100% the crime caper. Their being gay is merely incidental, and that’s what makes it so cool. Because it suggests that it’s not a big deal to be gay. Imagine such a message 30 years ago --and in Japan, no less!
I gave it a solid 10/10.
My theory as to why killed his family is that he had a fight with his wife because he got fired. We'd already seen that he's a violent guy, so it's easy to imagine him losing his temper at something she said about him getting fired. He probably just exploded and bashed her head with a blunt object, and accidentally killed her. Once he killed her, he knew he'd go to jail for life, and his kids' lives would be destroyed, so he chose to kill them too. This would mean that the family had already been dead during that week or so that he'd been running around with the gang. This would account for the bodies being a state of decomposition when the hitmen showed up.
Some of the silliness involved a petite 90 pound girl who was bashed in the head with a hammer 6 times but did not die; and later in the movie was shot in the chest 3 times, but still did not die. I began to think of her as "The Immortal Femme Fetal." And that's just one of the film's sillier elements. Trust me, there are bucket loads more.
But of all the silliness, I'd have to say that worst involved the director's attempt to copy certain plotlines from "Reservoir Dogs" and certain scenes from "Pulp Fiction." The imitation was so lame that I began to feel embarrassed for this director. Really, by the end of this movie I was just plain cringing.
Agencies pluck these kids from their families, sign them with contracts that essentially give them ownership over the kids, put them in dorms, overwork them, and then when the kids lose their looks, get too old, or just break down mentality, they dispose of them. Or the kids kill themselves. Over 30 K-Pop idols have killed themselves in the past decade alone. So it's this odd thing where the Korean entertainment industry is the best in the world outside of Hollywood, while at the same time, they have the worst problems. It's both things at the same time.
But I think that with all the negative press that the K-Pop industry has gotten for this, they should be doing better now on how they treat their idols. I mean, they know that world now looks at the Korean entertainment industry with so much respect and admiration that they want to keep it that way, right? I certainly admire the K-Wave and watch tons of Korean movies. In fact, I made a list here on MDL of my "Top Movies of All Asia" and 4 of them are Korean: "Night Flight" "Punch" "Parasite" and "The Handmaiden." I highly recommend each one of them!
Ultimately the person who wrote this show has inadvertently made Mahiro come off as a prickly, precious jerk with a fear of intimacy.